Advanced Process Control (APC) and Multivariable Predictive Control (MVPC) are considered established technologies in the large scale processing and power industries with a plethora of published material, e.g. Qin S. Joe and Thomas A. Badgwell, “An Overview of Industrial Model Predictive Control,” AIChE Conference, 1996, J. A. Rossiter, “Model-Based Predictive Control: A Practical Approach,” 2003 and Eduardo F. Camacho and Carlos Bordons, “Model Predictive Control,” 2007.
Recently a lot of attention was paid to optimal operation of multi-unit plants, e.g. a white paper by Honeywell, “Optimization Solution White Paper: an Overview of Honeywell's Layered Optimization Solution”, 2009, and another white paper by ABB, “Lifecycle Optimization for Power Plants,” 2004, followed by ABB's news release in 2012 titled “Life cycle management and service”. Additionally, IBM has been promoting its Smarter Planet for energy and utilities, see, for example, white paper, “The State of Smarter Energy and Utilities,” 2010.
As equipment performance, production demands, and process and ambient conditions all fluctuating, determine the optimal operating mode across multi-unit plants are complicated. Control and data acquisition systems provide an extensive quantity of process data. However, the multidimensional analysis required to achieve optimal operation are often beyond human ability.
Some of the challenges addressed in these publications are the inefficiencies existing in current large scale processing and power generation providers and the need for holistic control, not just geared towards specific units, but for the entire plant operation or even a plant network, involving multi-unit designs, which ultimately provides optimal process operation.
Examples of multi-unit plants in large scale processing and power industries include:                Oil field operations with a large number of surface pumping units, oil pipe line networks, well test gathering stations, and storages.        Gas and oil pipeline networks, equipped with a large number of pumping stations and pumping units.        Steam flood operations with a large number of steam generating stations and steam generators.        Hydrocarbon processing plants.        Power Generation plants equipped with gas/steam turbine driven generators, heat recovery steam generators, and boilers.        Power distribution network with a large amount of electrical producers and consumers.        Water treatment plants and water distribution network.        
The benefits of APC/MVPC (with basic foundations described well in U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,033 issued on April 1998 to Wassick et al. as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,605 issued on May 1996 to Cawlfield) systems implementation into multi-unit plants include the following:                Assistance in achieving optimal operation by accurately responding to real time demands and limitations.        Process optimization to reduce energy consumption in meeting delivery commitments.        Enhancing companies' ability to manage data and make better operating and prospecting decisions.        Improving process stability, allowing operation closer to target, constraint and optimum values.        Forecasting, process simulation, determining the ability to meet obligations.        
The large scale processing and power industries exhibit high demand for a decision support system that encompasses all of the above automation functions for plant networks, that is loaded with the state-of-the-art algorithms and models, and that is ultimately able to effectively communicate its performance and recommendations to decision makers throughout the organization. The current invention is the cost effective solution to this demand.